Improvement in bougies



S. ST. JOHN. Bougie.

No. 197,060. Patented Nov. 13, 1877.

N-PETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPNER, WASHINGTON. D Q

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

STEPHENST. JOHN, OF PORT JERVIS, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN BOUGIES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 197,060, dated November 13, 1877; application filed October 16, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN ST. JOHN, of Port Jervis, Orange county, New York, have invented a new and Improved Bougie, of which the following is a specification:

The drawing illustrates the shape of the bougie.

This invention relates to the class of surgical and medical devices known as bougies, made in the shape of a slender cylinder, designed to be introduced into the urethra, in order to open or dilate it in case of stricture or other diseases.

The invention consists in a compound of gelatine or isinglass and glycerine, thoroughly mixed together in proportions varied according to the quantity of the ingredients and the requirements of the species and intensity of the disease.

The compound thus made is then formed into smaller or larger cylinders, and medicated or.not, to suit different purposes.

I am aware that glycerine in the form of glycerate of starch has been used, together with cocoa-butter and tragacanth, for a similar purpose; also, that an outside coating of gelatine has been applied to bougies; but I do not employ the usual suppository of cocoa-butter; nor do I use starch or gum-arabic, or tragacanth, nor the gelatine, for a coating.

The bougie of my invention, unless medicated, contains only glycerine and gelatine or isinglass, of thorough intermixture into a homogeneous mass.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent-- A flexible urethral bougie, formed of a compound of glycerine and gelatine, medicated or not, substantially as specified.

STEPHEN ST. JOHN.

Witnesses: 1

GEORGE BRODH'EAI), F. H. RUDDIoK. 

